BSI Case Study Colas BSI Excellerator

How BSI Excellerator improves information and enhances the performance of quality management systems

Customer objectives

• Highlight quality management strengths and weaknesses

• Reinforce management information

• Inform board decision-making

• Maximize system standards performance

Customer benefits

• Clear identification of quality non-conformities

• Reassurance on overall quality management rigour

• Benchmarked systems across industry sector

• Morale boost from excellent results

• Strengthened management information

• Assured decision-making

• Enhanced system standards performance

• Identified potential for further improvement

“BSI Excellerator highlighted the causes of most of our non-conformities. It clarified them and enabled us to prioritize the issues we needed to address... and we were able to use the report’s findings in bringing these improvement areas to the attention of the board”

Lau Vlaar, Quality Manager, Colas Limited

Customer background

Colas is a progressive far reaching company

working to deliver intelligent solutions for

the development and maintenance of the

nation’s road and air infrastructure. The

company’s strength and expertise is based

both on its long history – it was founded

in 1926 – and also on being part of the

international Colas Group (owned by French

multinational Bouygues), which acquired it

in 1995.

Based near Crawley in West Sussex, Colas

has over 20 offices and depots across the

UK and around 1700 employees, including

those working in joint venture arrangements.

With a sales turnover approaching £300m,

it delivers services to a diverse range of

clients, including the Highways Agency, the

Ministry of Defence, Tfl, local authorities and

numerous private sector companies.

Why BSI Excellerator?

Colas has a strong track record of achieving

certification to key management system

standards. It first gained ISO 9001 in quality

management some 25 years ago and has

since achieved certification to various

national highway sector schemes based on

this globally respected standard. It has also

benefited from ISO 14001 in environmental

management, BS OHSAS 18001 in health and

safety management, and ISO/IEC 17025, the

main standard used by testing and calibration

laboratories. In addition, the company is

proud to be a Gold level accredited Investor

in Peopleand 5 Star recognized for excellence

(R4E), which is based on the EFQM Excellence

model.

Lau Vlaar, Colas’ Quality Manager, is

responsible for the task of administering the

company’s quality standards, with the key

objective of maximizing the benefits that can

be derived from them. In 2013, Vlaar took the

opportunity to trial BSI Excellerator, to see if

the information that the report provided could

assist him.

As Vlaar explains, Colas was no stranger to the

challenge of analyzing its quality management

performance. “We already had well-developed

strategic performance indicators within Colas

– we’re actually quite far ahead in our industry.

But we were curious to see if Excellerator

came up with the same results and we also

wanted to benchmark our processes against

other businesses.”

Benefits

In the event, BSI Excellerator provided

reassurance to Vlaar about the effectiveness

of Colas’ quality management systems.

Primarily, the report reinforced the company’s

existing knowledge of areas where its

performance was falling short of the required

standard. “BSI Excellerator highlighted the

causes of most of our non-conformities. It

clarified them and enabled us to prioritize the

issues we needed to address,” says Vlaar. “In

common with most companies, we had two or

three areas where extra effort was necessary,

and we were able to use the report’s findings

in bringing these improvement areas to the

attention of the board.”

With information presented clearly using

BSI Excellerator’s impressive graphics, the

report enabled Colas’ board members to focus

on areas of lower performance, ultimately

helping them to boost company performance.

But the report did not just point out

weaknesses. It also showed where Colas’

quality management systems were

performing well, providing morale-boosting

reassurance, as well as indicating how further

improvements could be made. Crucially,

BSI Excellerator enabled the company to

benchmark its results against data aggregated

by BSI from other organizations in its industry.

“From a base of 7,500 quality non-

conformities recorded by BSI across our

industry, it showed we are actually performing

three times better than the sector average, so

that put a smile on our faces,” says Vlaar.

He continues, “We have a continuous

improvement culture and we tend to be very

self-critical. Sometimes we kick ourselves

unjustifiably when we should be praising

ourselves – we’re actually doing a good job,

and the report helped us to communicate

this positive news to the board and senior

management.”

BSI Excellerator in practice

When it came to interpreting BSI

Excellerator’s results, Vlaar was cautious at

first. “I didn’t blindly accept the data in the

report,” he says. “First, I had to make sure I

understood it and then I compared it to our

own performance management data. When

I found they were in line it reassured me and

gave me confidence in the findings.”

Whilst Vlaar points out that, at Colas, “we’ve

identified non-conformities for years, so

the report is not so different to what we are

already doing,” he appreciates the clarity

and practicality of BSI Excellerator’s format,

adding, “I think it could be quite an eye-

opener for some companies”.

Why BSI

It was BSI that first suggested Colas might

benefit from Excellerator and it has remained

a supportive partner throughout the process

of compiling and using the tool. BSI carried

out an initial assessment to collect key

performance data. Its expert analysts then

benchmarked Colas’ performance, producing

company ‘scores’ and sector averages to

enable Colas to identify areas of over and

under performance.

Vlaar maintains a good dialogue with

BSI, which he believes could bring Colas

further benefits in future. As well as offering

continued performance information

and analysis of the company’s quality

management system, perhaps through an

annual BSI Excellerator report, he is open to

the idea of applying the powerful tool to the

company’s other management systems. In

addition, he foresees the prospect of detailed

performance comparisons between Colas’

different sites, as well as drawing on BSI’s

extensive audit database to benchmark the

company’s performance against businesses

outside its own sector.

In summary, Vlaar is impressed by BSI

Excellerator and sees significant further

potential for it. “I’m looking forward to

the next steps with BSI to improve our

performance further,” he concludes.

© B

SI G

rou

p

B

SI/

UK

/49

8/S

C/0

914

/en

/BLD

+44 845 080 9000

certification.sales@bsigroup.com

bsigroup.com

BSI Case Study Colas BSI Excellerator

20132014

Next steps

Find out how BSI Excellerator can help your business make excellence a habit – visit bsigroup.com